Dear Professor Rawlins,
Thank you for the generosity of your reply to my…slightly uncentered email, and the generosity of your offer to read Wentz in your private collection. I would love to take you up on that. Are you free Friday evening, after your symposium?
I spent the day reading through Gorky and the texts I could find online that cited him—strangely, one of the most fruitful sources turned out to be a 15,000-word story in an issue ofThe New Yorkerfrom 1981 discussing the mentalists who might have actually been using a subsidiary of writ magic to perform tricks on late-night television shows in the 1970s. The author makes the case that the famous “floating zombie” trick that “Frederico Federico” performed on Johnny Carson—which looks like a simple illusion of levitation that any hack magician on a cruise ship could perform—wasactuallydone using arcane mechanicals. The theory is that Federico performed an immobilization writ backstage on a pre-selected subject so that they would remain “stiff as a board” when he lifted them in the air. The author also posits that a number of stage hypnotists in the late 1970s might have also been using writ magic, but the evidence is understandably shaky.
“Federico” (a walking polyester vest of a man—real name Connor Parsons, from New Jersey) died in 2001, so no one can actually ask him whether he did utilize tricky and illegal magic when the same effect could have been achieved with simple illusion. (You should absolutely read the article—I linked it in case you’re curious—if only for the hilarious reference to Federico’s abandoned plan for a free-love compound in upstate New York, in which, to quote the article here, “a bevy of buxom co-eds and brawny hippie-types, all hypnotized into a perpetual state of readiness, might live together in a utopia of sexualenlightenment that would only resemble a cult to those unwilling to cast off the chains of their bourgeois mentality.”)
All of that fun aside, the idea of an immobilization writ struck me as the ideal first ritual to write a procedure for: something simple, with limited mitigating risk factors, with the added benefit of serving as an effective means of testing my hypothesis on the interaction between the central and peripheral nervous systems when a subject is compelled. Thoughts? I haven’t found any texts that offer any guidance on the actual orchestration of the ritual (naturally), but I have a few guesses for how it might be done, and I’m hoping Wentz will offer more clues. Let me know if Friday works. I am not accustomed to being behind in my schoolwork and I would like to remedy that as soon as possible with at least a draft of my ritual procedure written by the end of the month.
A side note: Since you and I are going to be working closely together studying magic that would be illegal to actually perform, it seems like a good idea we actually get to know each other. And though I’m sure any…flirtation between graduate students and thesis advisers is frowned upon by the administration, I haven’t been able to find any evidence that it’s actually against the rules.
Still, for the sake of propriety, let’s pretend it’s merely in the spirit of cultivating a friendship when I ask: Are you married? You don’t wear a ring, but since precious metals disrupt rituals, I know many arcanists simply do away with rings in and out of the Practicum (or worse, wear those terrible siliconized plastic “man bands” marketed toward husbands who find jewelry of any kind to be an insurmountable concession toward, gasp, femininity).
Here’s something I’ll tell you so you can get to know me: I’m an impatient and selfish person, and I don’t like the feeling of wanting things I can’t have.
x
Ellsbeth
From:Rawlins.T.M.
To:Storer.Ellsbeth
Subject: Re: Re: Re:my thesis Proposal
Ellsbeth,
Your impatience may prove to be an impediment to your success, as the gears of the academy turn slowly. But your selfishness, owned and acknowledged, will be a great asset; whatever drivel you hear about the selfless nobility of teaching, the pursuit of novel arcane knowledge demands relentless, singular focus.
On that note: No, I am not married, by choice. You probably are not either, given your age, but is there anyone in your life who would take exception to your leg-brushing and drunken emailing? I hope not, for the sake of your academic future: The focused study of arcane mechanicals does not allow for the sacrifices that romantic partnerships invariably demand. You may be tempted to imagine partnership with a fellow scholar, one you can respect as an equal, but such pleasures are invariably short-lived. Our department’s own Babbs Tran, a brilliant transmutation professor, briefly enjoyed a passionate and enviable marriage to her colleague Paula Veldt—until they were both up for the same fellowship. I’ll spare you the details, but they involved an undergraduate lover, the thaumaturgical obliteration of all Veldt’s possessions, and a restraining order.
Perhaps a more pragmatic approach to matrimony is that of Dean Lennox, who has been stably wedded for decades to a man outside our field entirely—but he is so agreeably dull, he resembles a suitcase dragged through her life, ceaselessly oppressed by her moods and whims. I would prefer occasional loneliness to suchsettling.Don’t worry, I’m not advocating monastic self-denial; the carnal appetites just have to be indulged without messy entanglements, in order for the mind to preserve the autonomy it needs.
I am telling you all this for your own good, and mine. Your character as an academic will reflect on me for years to come. Toward that end, I would draw your attention to a trait of yoursthat you’ll need to work on before you present at any reputable conference: your rambling digressiveness. But I will also point toward, underlying it, something worth preserving: your curiosity. You see the merit in subjects (like stage magic) that most would ignore to their detriment. And I do wonder (my own curiosity) at where the trait came from, in someone such as yourself—if it was natural or learned, if it was cultivated deliberately, and what discoveries and difficulties it may have led you to in the past? I know from experience that a restless mind can be both a blessing and a curse.
Regardless of its origins, curiosity will serve you, especially when it leads to ideas at the margins and dark corners of our field—which is exactly where you will have to look in your study of writ magic. But such notions need to be approached with caution. Are you familiar with the work of Ariana Greyburn? In 2015, she published a well-received paper on arcane practices with medical benefits for prostate function. But the article does little to explain the theoretical basis of the ritual she developed; she certainly does not cite Martin Perl’s controversial 2011 field study on ritual practices in Berlin’s underground “sex magick” clubs, even though a close look reveals that Greyburn’s innovation is only a minor revision of one of the rituals Perl describes.
While Perl was pilloried as a pervert, the academic who built on his work (without attribution) has gone on to great acclaim and (pardon my pun) bottomless funding. Innovative ideas may be found in the disreputable gutters of our field, but they must be shined up with a veneer of respectability before they can find public acceptance. I’ll not bother with clichés about curiosity and cats, but I urge caution as you undertake the study you have in mind—for what you propose carries the threat of academic exile (and also, if you happen to get caught performing such rituals, federal prison).
As for Friday night, shouldn’t you, as a not unattractive young woman with a new cohort of colleagues, have some sort of socialplans? I do. But since we’ve established your impatience andhow far behind you are, you can come by while I’m out (1022 N.Bernwick Lane); I’ll leave a key in the birdhouse on theelm out front. My Wentz volumes will be on the coffee table in the study. Everything you need should be downstairs, so please, mitigate your curiosity with a modicum of self-control.
I will be back around nine to verify that you are not making a mess of my books, evaluate the appropriateness of your attire, and answer your questions—about Wentz and whatever else you wish to know. I am, after all, holistically responsible for your education, and knowledgeable on a good many things beyond century-old arcane theory. And perhaps it is because you have proven so headstrong, but I confess to a certain Pygmalion pleasure at the prospect of shaping you into a perfect pupil.
Sincerely,
Rawlins
From:Storer.Ellsbeth
To:Rawlins.T.M.
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re:my thesis Proposal
Dear Professor,
Friday is great. Thank you so much for your hospitality. I promise to restrict my curiosity to just the contents of the Wentz volumes (and your fridge, closets, medicine cabinet, etc.).
Having pored through all of the Gorky material I could find online, I’m already feeling incredibly optimistic about the possibility of crafting a successful writ magic ritual (she wrote, cue dramatic irony). Obviously, Gorky didn’t detail the actual steps, but I do feel as though I have a basic grasp of the core principles behind the actual mechanics of writ magic. It seems to me the trickiest part is whether—in a technical sense—to treat the biological matter of the subject as a solid or a liquid.Arcanus Mentiswas unhelpfully written back when they thought that writ magic was the biological control of the “humours,” but given that the human body is approximately 60 percent water, it does seem possible the 17th-century arcanists stumbled upon a correct approach with incorrect logic. I’m hoping Wentz will help me sort out my thoughts on this, and I think it’s possible I’ll have a successfully written ritual in the next week orso.
